How To Survive, Then Thrive In A Digital Economy

When I first got into the digital business in 1996, the conversations were all about web sites, better known then as "the dot-com!" Now, the conversation is about "the dot-everywhere," because that is where users have led us: everywhere.

Businesses and agencies are scrambling to organize research and data to make sense of what “everywhere” actually means to brands. What should my strategic digital plan be moving forward? And since digital is dot.everywhere, why are we even talking about my strategic digital plan – shouldn’t the conversation just be about my plan?

A CEO is only as good as his or her people, so I recently strolled around our San Diego office, casually interviewing fellow Digitarians to get their thoughts on how to survive and thrive in a digital economy. I asked them to think from the perspective of our company as well as the human beings we’re trying to communicate with, and what all sides should be thinking about.

• Be prepared to change your habits:
• Individuals: Text messages and social alerts are replacing email for authentic conversations with friends. Gen Xers, who already had to adapt to email (in lieu of phones, writing notes on paper, or dashing over to someone to say what's on their mind), need to adapt once more, now that there are more intimate communication channels available.
• Companies: Marketing strategies need to adapt to influence not just brand preferences, but consumer behavior. For instance, people will need to be persuaded, through marketing, to wear their technologies rather than carry them. Google Apps and similar SAS are revolutionizing enterprise collaboration by easing file sharing and making business communication more like chatting on Facebook - making Outlook and SharePoint relics…just like Blackberry.

• Unplug while staying connected:
  • Individuals: Nothing is more valuable than an hour a day of yoga or a family mealtime with eye contact - even if that group exercise and eye contact is brought to you through a Google+ hangout.
  • Companies: Enhance customer experiences through technology. Mobile payments provide convenience that can be the deciding factor in someone's decision to buy your product while they’re out walking the dog but left their wallet at home. Farm stands that use the new "square" credit card reader that plugs into a phone will generate revenue previously lost, as fewer people carry cash in favor of credit cards.

Thinking forward, in order to thrive you must rally around three actions regarding digital experiences and technologies:

• Adopting: doing what you have always done while augmenting offline experiences with online channels. Traditionally, companies have offered call centers and now they offer online self service too. These actions don't fundamentally change a business, but do impact economics and have an impact on product or service delivery. Companies must decide where adoption is table stakes.

• Adapting: using digital channels or technologies to change the shape or form or product to reach new audiences, and using data in new ways. Companies that exploit digital technologies are preparing for the future and transforming their business, while others may be just adopting. Adapting companies develop new products, change processes, and reach new markets typically ahead of others.

• Disrupting: Digital technologies and the proliferation of devices to reach and interact with people have lowered the barriers to enter markets and compete overall. Both existing and new brands need to recognize opportunities to disrupt. By definition disruption changes all decision variables and is where brands are built or destroyed.

In order to thrive in the digital economy, companies must set up the right mechanisms to know when to act, built around these three forces and around a fundamentally sound business strategy. Sensing what is coming around the corner and constantly experimenting to stay ahead is critical. But most importantly, systematically listening to the voice of the customer, as they have more of a stake in organizational decision-making than ever, is paramount.

• Above all, don't be afraid to try anything – it’s only digital. If you’re afraid, you'll lose.

• Archaic systems will slow you down. Demand better from your IT organization and constantly strive to move the needle forward.

• Follow the data. It will tell you almost everything you need to know.

• You must define a successful ROI for your business and manage towards it.

• Mobile, mobile, mobile. But remember: Apps are not mobile, they're a utility. Your web site must be optimized to deliver a great mobile experience.

• "Survival" is not a good digital strategy. Digital is not a place where the complacent “survive” for very long. There’s a virtual graveyard of brands that have tried. You must change before the change has happened around you, leaving you the last one on a melting iceberg.

• Flexibility, adaptation and transformation - there are very few things that stay consistent in digital. A rare one is "nothing stays the same." Change or die is the reality of digital world.

• You can't fool the user. You might trick a customer to feel or think one way or another, but to change or influence behavior is much harder. Therefore you must utterly understand their needs. In other words, “Making things people want is more important then making people want things.”

• Digital branding is as much about "interaction" as it is "communication."

• Digital manifests in the world of screens - connected, responsive, TVs, computers, radio, everything. Except we don't just get exposed to ideas - we use and interact with them, with each other and with the brand.

• Digital is not just another media channel. It's fundamentally a new way of communication, interaction, doing "things" and even understanding reality.

That, in the end, is a good place to stop and should be your final takeaway. Digital isn’t merely a platform, the latest place to sell somebody something. It’s increasingly the core of mankind’s modern reality, everyone’s tether to every facet of their lives, and it’s only becoming more so by the minute.